Weekly News Thread: April 29 - May 5

[bettywales]

29th April

* SORRY! *hides* We want to apologize for not being able to launch the pound today. We really did think we would be able to, but we will be launching it tomorrow after we make sure it won't blow up the site. (You may have noticed some site trouble earlier, which was due to the pound.) :-( Trust us, we want the pound back as much as you do.

* If you are going to have the smartest Neopet around, they will need to read some more Books. How about one of these new Lutari books?


* There are some new Cybunny Poems in the gallery.

* Congratulations go out to Skrulkor and Springsteen1110! Each has proven spiffier than the rest in the Customisation Spotlight. Voting for this week's contest has begun. Good luck to this week's entrants!


* rex33244 has just won this week's Minigolf Spotlight award with their course - It's a Breeze.

* Clean up your adorable Neopet with some of these fun Altador-themed Grooming items.


* Ahh... as summer approaches you may want to use one of these Sunshine-themed Buddy Icons.


* Can you think of what happens next in this week's Story Telling?

Cylette carefully wrapped the ribbons of her ballet slippers around her ankles and tied them in a perfect bow. The pink silk of the slippers looked pretty against her soft white fur, she thought. Even if she only had a bit part in this year's recital, it was still a solo, so she wanted to look her best.

* The latest Caption Contest seems to be a bit on the wild side.


* The Pet Spotlight award of the week goes to a Lupe called lalanthier_neo.

* If you are feeling a bit tired you might want to relax and enjoy a Latte.


[I corrected some of the typos - there were so MANY of them, they were driving me nuts. -bw]

[bettywales]

30th April

* Today is randomly themed: Square Day!

* Squares are all the rage! Well at least for today they are!


Wow... that is a lot of squares!

* The User Lookup of the Week goes to yu_sheen for his lookup!

* Ah, the Kookith can now be painted Desert, Purple, Spotted or Robot at the Petpet Puddle.


* mr_burns82 wins the latest Gallery Spotlight with the Building Block Toybox.

* There is a new Mystery Piccompetition. The answer to the last one was LDPBSTSCC. 140 people guessed correctly, earning them 14,286 NP each.

* Try one of these new Fun Images on your petpage!





* If you haven't noticed yet, the Pound is back! Please make sure you read the FAQ and all of the instructions as the pound has changed.

* What better way to pay tribute to the square than with new food? You can pick up som of these square foods at the Food Shop.


* There are some new Poems in the gallery.

* Congratulations go out to maraquanry231_4 for winning this week's Meridell Castle Spotlight award. Well done!

* The Art Gallery has been updated with a new page of art.


* A new Shop Blog is available featuring squares!

* The Book Shop has four new books on sale, if you Neopet is looking for something new to read.

[bettywales]

1st May

* Mmm... these berry Plushies even smell like berries!


* chronicles_999 and Conrado should be very pleased with themselves, they have jsut won today's Site Spotlight award.

* This week's PPL award has been given to the Spyven. Well done Goldeye, Puff, Azi, Rascal, and all the others.


* Do you have what it takes to beat Gorix's score for this week's Better Than You competition?

* Mmmm... food made from fresh Fruits is a wonderful thing.


* If you want a chance to have your videos viewed by others on Neopets why not submitthem?

* There are four new Buddy Icons of varying sizes for you to use.


* A new Lenny Conundrum competition has begun. The answer to last week's was 30. 462 people guessed the correct answer earning themselves 4335 NP each.

* Fans of the new game Berry Bash are sure to like this new Background.
[the image for this is massive for some reason, so go look yourself!]

* The Pirate Cave Of The Week goes to mr_cutie for the aptly-named the_great_race. Well Done!

* Make sure you are ready for anything with some of these great Supplies.

[bettywales]

2nd May - Lupe Day

* Lupes can now be painted Camouflage and Disco at the Rainbow Pool.


* There are some new Poems with a Lupe Day theme in the gallery.

* If your Neopet wants a bit of a treat today you might consider picking up some of these candies at the Chocolate Factory.


* Well done dragonladie888! Your stunning home - 9117 Bracknell Road, Neopia Central has just won this week's Neohome Spotlightaward.

* Lupes may have a desire to dance when they wear some of these new Clothes.





Let's Dance!

* There is a new Mystery Pic competition. The answer to the last one was Gnomes visit Pant Devil Screensaver. 118 people guessed correctly, earning them 16,950 NP each.

* There is a new Lupe Day special in the Art Gallery.


* Dress up your shop with one of these new Shopkeepers!




* Don't forget to take your Lupe to see Cap'n Threelegs today. He will be giving free training to any young Lupe that goes to his Swashbuckling Academy.

* Can you think of something witty for our latest Caption Contest?


* This week's Petpet Spotlight award goes to Kessler the Ukali.

* Awww.... the Plushie Palace has some adorable new Lupe plushies on sale.

[smudgeoffudge]

Why the sudden obsession with carmen miranda? I don't know? What do you want the staff to get obsessed with? I'd love a phantom of the opera mask. Can they make one or would that be copyright infringement?

What if they just made something called "white face paint" and you could imagine it was whatever you wanted it to be?

There are some other broadway shows I like.

I'd love some clothing to make my pet look like a poor pitiful workhouse orphan! It would look so cute on a grey pet. Zombie too, because you can't have enough tattered clothings for them.

I'm sort of glad they got away from their rain coat and P J's rut anyway, or their obsession with clowns.

[Scythemantis]

The mustache by itself is the most entertaining thing you could put on a cartoon wolf pet. It's a wolf...with a mustache! NEOPETS: picking up where evolution foolishly left off.

[bettywales]

3rd and 4th May

* The newest issue of the Neopian Times has been released! Keep your eyes open for great stories and adventures like Carrot Cake! and Other Fantastical Cybunny Treats and The Meepit Army Chronicles: Durian Wars.


* This week's Neoadventure Spotlight goes to lyriclee for Invasion from Kreludor.

"The year is 23 NCE (Neopian Common Era), and the Alien Invasion of Neopia is running on it's fourth year. Kreludor is now..."

* Usukiland has some wonderful new accessory sets!


* The Random Contest is continuing for another week! Good luck to all the entrants.

* Awwww... what an adorable Turmac Sketch Background.


* The latest Fun Images seem to be of some rather brave Neopets.





* The next round of the Beauty Contest is about to begin! Head on over and vote for your favourite.

* If you are looking for that perfect dessert you might be interested in these delicacies from the Qasalan Food Shop.


* The latest videos are out and ready for you to view on Neovision! Why not take a look at some of these great videos like Neopian Oddities or Master of Neopia. Congratulations to the winners!



If you want a chance to have your videos viewed by others on Neopets why not submit them?

* cortex16 has just won this week's Faerie Caves Spotlight award thanks to their level - Hmm... Spikes, & Dyn.

* Soft, warm bread is always a wonderful thing to buy at the Bakery!


* If you want a break you might want to check out our latest sponsor game - Ritz Bits Defense

[metalmario]

I love how the sketch backgrounds are no longer sketches anymore

[digitel_anime_fan_20]

Editorial:

Okay, first off, please thank everyone that helped get the Pound up for me! I'm SO glad it's back. Now for my question: I want to transfer my Neopets from one of my other accounts to this account, but two of them are still using the old art from before you changed how the Neopets look. I want to know if, when I transfer them, will they stay with the old art, or will they be changed to the new art? I couldn't find anything about this when I looked through the Pound FAQ and I want to know before I transfer. If they get to keep their old artwork, give the people that helped with the Pound pancakes. ;D Thanks a bunch! ~fromidam
Neopets featuring old art will NOT be automatically converted if they are transferred. However, once they are in the hands of their new owner, that player will have the option of permanently converting them. So if you do not want your Neopet to be converted we suggest being careful with the lending out of an unconverted Neopet unless you're willing to risk this happening. Once a Neopet is converted it cannot be changed back, even if it is someone else who did it.

Thanks so much TNT for getting the Pound back up. I love the transfer feature! My question is about Lutaris. I know that, in the past, if we tried to abandon a Lutari it would run away. Are we able to transfer Lutaris now? ~daidriap
No, Lutaris cannot be abandoned without running away, and they will not allow themselves to be transferred. Sheesh! They are such willful Neopets, aren't they?


Aww, they're too cute to stay mad at.

A gal I know put one of her Neopets in the Pound quite some time ago. The day before the Pound re-opened, the Neopet's lookup showed it as being in the Pound, as it should be. Now that the Pound has re-opened, the Neopet isn't there. If I look it up, I get a "The owner of this Neopet has had their account frozen" message. I realize it’s possible that someone else who was just as excited about the Pound re-opening as I am went just as quickly to the Pound as I did upon the re-opening, got the Neopet first, then immediately got their account frozen. However, given the timeframe and the fact that I’ve seen some posts saying similar things on the NeoBoards, I’m doubting the someone-else-got-that-Neopet-right-before-I-got-to-the-Pound-and-then-immediately-got-frozen scenario a bit. Is there some kind of glitch going on with the Pound? Are some Neopets "stuck"? Thanks a bunch, TNT! ~spiritsearch
Part of the issue with the Pound opening is that there was an insane number of Neopets backlogged in the Pound. And we mean like, millions. x_X That's what caused the instability that the site experienced. We couldn't release the Pound until the next day because we had to transfer those Neopets out of the Pound (and that's a very slow process). We're going to continue to try and release those frozen Neopets slowly back into the Pound to avoid making the site asplode. Hopefully, all will go well. *fingers crossed*

I think that the map pieces should be numbered (like, "Piece of a Treasure Map 1-9"). That way, I wouldn't have to look up the term Piece of a Treasure Map twenty times on the Shop Wizard, waiting until I find my piece because there is no way to tell them apart by name. The Piece of a Treasure Map set has 9 pieces, and some cost 130k due to inflation. Also, can I only win Piece of a Treasure Map pieces from Scorchy Slots? ~thegooblop
Treasure map pieces can also be found through a site Random Event, in addition to Scorchy Slots. As far as numbering treasure map pieces and the like, well, this is part of the fun... after all, no one numbers real treasure map pieces.

Hi, TNT. Thank you so much for the Pound, but as you might have already guessed the re-opening has caused a few adverse effects. I know you already answered about a Neopound Board being created, but are you willing to reconsider? There's already a lot of begging going on at the Help Chat - with it being overcrowded by Pound topics - and people are finding it more difficult to get their questions answered. Re-directing them to existing Pound surfs doesn't really work, either. It just seems that a Neopound Board would be a good solution for everyone. Thanks so much for reading my request. ~ethan_redshaw
We are planning on adding a board for the Pound soon, though we are not sure when exactly.

Hey, how's it going? Listen, I have a problem. See, I went to the Pound the day after it was supposed to be opened, and I went searching for a painted Neopet. Well, all I got were the basic green, blue, red, and yellow colors (and two purple Grundos, but they don't really count). I'm just wondering... why am I not finding painted Neopets, especially after around half an hour of Pound surfing? Is it something to do with a new account age rule, or am I just unlucky and need to be more persistent? If you answer this I'll give you a fluffy kitty. =) Thanks. ~x_musicxisxmyxlife_x
No, your account is plenty old enough! We are guessing it's because of two things: 1.) There's an insane number of people surfing the Pound right now and snagging painted Neopets quickly, and 2.) Painted Neopets are now more likely to be transferred than simply stuck in the Pound.


We answered. Now where's our fluffy kitty?!?

Dear, dear, dear TNT. I have a question of rather large importance to me, myself, and I, and anyone else whom this may have happened to. I was rearranging my acquisitions in my gallery when I discovered that an item I traded for is no longer in my gallery. I then did a search on the Shop Wiz for the item and, lo and behold, the item name is no longer coming up as a valid item name. Moreover, other galleries that I know had the same item (Kougra collectors, we must unite!) are also now missing that same item. Please, please, please tell me what happened to my Pocket Neopet Kougra, and why it doesn't come up on a Shop Wiz search or TP search. Please restore my item, wherever it vanished to! It cost me a lot of NP's, and I really, really, really, really want it back! ~catmagyck
We are certainly not in the habit of deleting items rather than replacing them, so we looked into it. Your Pocket Neopet Kougra can now be found in your gallery as the item Red Kougra Play Set. It's the same item, but with a different name and art. It is also just as rare as it was before, so your investment should still be sound. This also happened with the similar Kacheek, Aisha, and Draik items.

Let's say you use the transfer option to receive a Neopet that's being lent to you. How long will it be before you can use the transfer option to give it back? There appears to be a lag of a certain number of days. ~indulgences
It is currently set to once a month, but we soon hope to have it set to once per day.

Dear TNT, first of all - congratulations on getting the Pound working! The new transfer option is great, and I was really looking forward to it: I thought that, by using it, I could give away the clothing I had accumulated in my closet from Lab Ray zaps. As things turned out, though, it looks like these items will be gathering dust forever, as I cannot donate or even *sob* discard them... so why is it not possible to transfer Neopets with paint brush clothes from colours other than the one the Neopet is currently painted, and might you reconsider this in the future? ~max_frei
We put a lot of thought into the Pound, especially with regard to transferring paint brush clothing. We decided that it just wouldn't be right for players to transfer around Neopets that had been painted several times, as this would just be too much of a cheat to get free paint brush clothing. It was a tough decision to even allow the paint brush clothing of what it was currently painted as to be allowed to be passed on to another player. :-/


Earning stuff yourself = good!

A lot of people have been getting confused with the new transfer system as of May 1st. I understand that the Pound being back is a brand new thing, but I was just wondering (since it's not stated anywhere in the FAQ): can you transfer a Neopet to another account (say, a side) every 30 days, or literally every month, like the monthly freebies/game resets? Thank you for answering, if you do. ~im_a_lostprophet
The FAQ says that you can transfer a Neopet every month. By this, we mean every calendar month. So, if you transferred a Neopet on April 30th, you could transfer another Neopet in early May.

I've been playing Neopets off-and-on for almost eight years now. I love the new transfer feature in the Pound, but as you know it has developed into a black hole of confusion. To my knowledge it has never been okay to swap/trade Neopets. For example: I have a Lupe and Person A will give me their Poogle for my Lupe. This is bad. However, if I wanted to move my Lupe to my side account, this is fine. Nonetheless, trading behavior is rampant now and I'm just wondering if we can get a specific and concise YES or NO on the issue. So many players, including older ones, read past Editorials and say it's permissible while many others, such as myself, still believe it to be wrong. Am I wrong and trading has always been okay? Or am I right and the rules, since changed, now make it okay? Or was it always wrong and is still wrong? Unfortunately, I am not so concise, but I thank you in advance for clarifying the issue! ~folgers86
To explain as simply as possible, the first thing someone should understand is that, once they choose to let their Neopet go (even if it's to a friend), the Neopet no longer belongs to them. Therefore, they need to be sure that letting their Neopet leave the account is what they want, because this is solely their responsibility and choice. Secondly, as of this writing, the selling of Neopets and trading of Neopets for items, Neopoints, etc. is also against the rules. Therefore, if you are caught doing it you could lose the Neopet and your account.

I have a question concerning the whole "no posting outside links on the Neoboards" rule. What about telling somebody to do a Google search for something, and telling them to "click on the one titled ____." Is that okay, or is that a no-no as well? I like pointing people to good game guides, but a lot of the better ones are located off-site, so I'm not sure what to do. ~digitel_anime_fan_20
While we totally understand that your intentions are good, we really don't want anyone to attempt to redirect anyone off-site from the boards. Not because we are jealous and don't want to share you with the rest of the interwebs (though we do love having you here!), but because of account security and helping players avoid scammers.

I can't believe I got an editorial question in. O.o Only the second time I sent it too. I'm surprised they stuck it in there, seeing as how everything else was about the pound. Oh well, question answered!

[eilu]

hmmm, guess Hissi day's going to be late. Wonder if they'll release Hissis tomorrow or on Monday or Tuesday (since Monday's news is usually late)?

[May]

Transfers might change to once per day?!?!?! That would be AWESOME!!!!

[Unitylejean]

Transfers might change to once per day?!?!?! That would be AWESOME!!!!

Well, on one hand, it would be awesome - safe transfers to side accounts plus easy avatar pets ledning. On the other hand... can you say "pet selling on a MASSIVE scale?"

[Helena]

I think it should be something like once per week... *shrug*